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Disinfecting wood- interesting quote..and confusion

16K views 33 replies 15 participants last post by  jausi 
#1 ·
I was looking at some old threads on this forum and I came across an interesting quote from the all-knowing Ed :D

"As an aside, boiling or baking or both are not adequate methods of dealing of disinfecting or sterilizing wood or bark. You have to be able to get the core temperature of the material hot enough to guarantee that all pockets and crevices are heated sufficiently and this is very difficult using the above methods."

The thing that surprises me is that it seems like 99.99% of advice for disinfecting wood is to boil and/or bake it. The reason I wanted to post this new thread about it is that I would like to know if Ed or anybody else can elaborate on the above quote, and recommend any methods for really disinfecting wood. OR if in fact they think it's even necessary..what's the point of boiling/baking if it doesn't completely work? What are we trying to remove by boiling/baking? :confused:
 
#2 ·
I got one, I found this long thin piece of driftwood on the river, so i cut it in half and soaked it in a 50gal bucket with other pieces of wood i found. I put a bag of pool shock in and circulated the water let it soak for 2 days. After that it sat drying in the sun for a week, then i baked all my wood in the oven at 350 for a hour and left it in overnight.

A week later it was time to go in the viv, i cut the pieces to fit and while placing them in GIANT RED ANTS started poring out of the center of the stick, about 10 of them. This stick diameter was less than an inch, i was amazed they survived, so i snatched them up in a cup...... and fed emm to my frogs. The End lol
 
#8 ·
ARGH! Get over the bleach. It still will not soak in deep enough and will NEVER rinse out. You wil not be able to get rid of 100% of the "nasties". Watch your frogs and get them tested yearly or 2. Thats the best way to make sure your frogs stay healthy.
 
#12 ·
Well, I wouldn't suggest it as collodial silver has been losing effectivness due to all of the various non-medical usages... see for example Survival of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis in Water: Quarantine and Disease Control Implications

In addition, as with other disinfectives, it won't penetrate the cracks and crevices any better as the carrier is going to be restricted. If you think about it, very thin cracks and crevices can retain air pockets unless water is forced into them under pressure (autoclave).

I would be much more concerned about introducing unwanted organisms with the plants. I tend to quarantine the plants and then use clean cuttings to populate my tanks.

Ed
 
#13 ·
Ed, my tree frog tank has nemerteans, even after a bleach wash of the tank to clean it out prior to re-using. You mentioned that eggs can survive under the silicone edges. I think that's what you said.

So, anyway, I'm moving them to a new tank which has been much more aggressively cleaned and has not had nemerteans. I wanted to re-use some of the wood pieces in their current tank. Nice long, thin, twisty pieces that they like to climb on. Since these pieces are going from their old tank to their new tank, my only concern is the nemerteans.

Do you think that boiling and baking these pieces will kill off the nemerteans and eggs? Since these pieces are small in diameter, they should be pretty hot to the center, I would think.

Am I going to have to just throw all this great wood away? :(

Thanks
 
#20 ·
Ed, my tree frog tank has nemerteans, even after a bleach wash of the tank to clean it out prior to re-using. You mentioned that eggs can survive under the silicone edges. I think that's what you said.

So, anyway, I'm moving them to a new tank which has been much more aggressively cleaned and has not had nemerteans. I wanted to re-use some of the wood pieces in their current tank. Nice long, thin, twisty pieces that they like to climb on. Since these pieces are going from their old tank to their new tank, my only concern is the nemerteans.

Do you think that boiling and baking these pieces will kill off the nemerteans and eggs? Since these pieces are small in diameter, they should be pretty hot to the center, I would think.

Am I going to have to just throw all this great wood away? :(

Thanks
If there were loose edges to the sealer on the tank then it is easily possible that the nemerteans were able to avoid the bleach under or in the sealer and then repopulate the tank.

Unless you can autoclave the wood or let it dry for a significant period of time (months to a year or more), you may be better off discarding it... See the comment above on the ants in the wood as they survived an hour in the oven at 350 F.....in addition to the other measures taken the by the poster. The problem with nemerteans is that they are extremely invasive between cages and there are multiple routes that they can take from cage to cage.

Ed
 
#28 ·
So...recently while walking the shores of some local lakes...I encountered some driftwood.

I picked it up, and its drying in front of my garage.

I figured that I would later chip off any rotting wood, powerwash it, and then boil, followed by baking and then dry.

Now, Im thinking that encorporating any sort of wild wood is a poor choice. Am I correct?

Based on the import rules am I to assume that all wood that I buy from the vendors is safe?

I had some grapewood that was outside for a spell. It was then washed, and baked...but then sat with my other wood.

Is that wood all ruined now?

Thanks
 
#31 ·
So...recently while walking the shores of some local lakes...I encountered some driftwood.

I picked it up, and its drying in front of my garage.

I figured that I would later chip off any rotting wood, powerwash it, and then boil, followed by baking and then dry.

Now, Im thinking that encorporating any sort of wild wood is a poor choice. Am I correct?

Based on the import rules am I to assume that all wood that I buy from the vendors is safe?

I had some grapewood that was outside for a spell. It was then washed, and baked...but then sat with my other wood.

Is that wood all ruined now?

Thanks
Okay, I'm a little lost here... what portion of your questions weren't addressed in the above thread?

Ed
 
#32 ·
Great post.

Would sealing wood/leaves etc in a CO2 gas for a few days kill and streilize?
In short, no... Many terrestrial invertebrates (including estivating terrestrial snails and other invertebrates are very resistent to CO2 poisoning due to low metabolic needs of oxygen)...

Some comments

Ed
 
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#34 ·
Thanks ED for sharing all your knowlege, I was planing to bake or some pieces of cork I had from a tank that I taking apart and I didn't want to waste those nice pieces and use them in a Amazon tree boa setup, I was planing to build and after reading this I'll be buying new pieces of cork and hoping to find nice looking brnaches or vines in a local pet store.

Ps: does any one know where can I get them on line?, and where can I find a thread to make clay backgrounds?
 
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